Peter Connan wrote:If there is another dune trip next year, it would be very interesting to do a tire comparison, if it could be arranged in a meaningful way.

IE swopping wheels of different sizes onto one car, driven by the same driver. Preferably the same make and pattern. I would love to know whether wider is better or worse...

Hi Peter

Yes indeed, and another point that people who claim to be knowledgeable are very opinionated on, is whether a wider footprint helps at all, versus just lengthening the footprint of a flatter tire.
But it is always going to be difficult to compare apples with apples. very few cars were comparable to one another. E.g. two 4.5s, but one has more steel on it, different tires and state of being worn.

We definitely want to have another one next year.
So Dirk needs to think about this:
March is too early, as we had to endure 38-40 deg celcius.
Nights were also almost too hot to sleep.
Winter on the other hand is super cold at night.

So the ideal time is late April, which also coincides with the 27/4 and 1/5 public holidays.
We will however need to fix the time in 2018 soon, given the popularity of that particular time window.

In addition to that, Tommie has also suggested a quarter-mile race day on dirt roads closer to Gauteng. Just for the Saturday. That can happen at any time during the year though.

Yes indeed, and another point that people who claim to be knowledgeable are very opinionated on, is whether a wider footprint helps at all, versus just lengthening the footprint of a flatter tire.
But it is always going to be difficult to compare apples with apples. very few cars were comparable to one another. E.g. two 4.5s, but one has more steel on it, different tires and state of being worn.

We definitely want to have another one next year.
So Dirk needs to think about this:
March is too early, as we had to endure 38-40 deg celcius.
Nights were also almost too hot to sleep.
Winter on the other hand is super cold at night.

So the ideal time is late April, which also coincides with the 27/4 and 1/5 public holidays.
We will however need to fix the time in 2018 soon, given the popularity of that particular time window.

In addition to that, Tommie has also suggested a quarter-mile race day on dirt roads closer to Gauteng. Just for the Saturday. That can happen at any time during the year though.

Which is why I envisage swopping wheels. To level the playing field. It would be great to see 33x12.5x15, 285-75/16 (same diameter, different width) and maybe something smaller in diameter on the same car.

Last year we had it in September, and the weather was probably just about perfect?

Peter Connan wrote:If there is another dune trip next year, it would be very interesting to do a tire comparison, if it could be arranged in a meaningful way.

IE swopping wheels of different sizes onto one car, driven by the same driver. Preferably the same make and pattern. I would love to know whether wider is better or worse...

Peter, I would love to also do these tests and I think this trip is perfect for the job when looking at grip on sand.
This past weekens I have tried many preasures and can almost say without a doubt that my fatter tyres gave me an advantadge.
On some long climbs I was going way slower than the petrols as I had to do it in 2L and had enough grip to do it.

Tommue might have some meaningfull input here as I think he has lots of experiance in the sand.

Sand driving is awesome and this trip really geve me confedance in my vehicle and learned some new skills in the sand

Peter Connan wrote:To level the playing field. It would be great to see 33x12.5x15, 285-75/16 (same diameter, different width) and maybe something smaller in diameter on the same car.

Alex and myself were driving close together most of the time and he also ran his tyres with very low preasures.
I think one advantage on the 33x12.5x15 is that you can run the tyres on lower preasures than the 285/75/16.
I was running on 0.4 bar at one stage and drove around like that with no prob.
On the other hand, Alex's Patrol might be a bit heavier than mine so it really is not easy without a propoer test.

We definitely want to have another one next year.
So Dirk needs to think about this:
March is too early, as we had to endure 38-40 deg celcius.
Nights were also almost too hot to sleep.
Winter on the other hand is super cold at night.

So the ideal time is late April, which also coincides with the 27/4 and 1/5 public holidays.
We will however need to fix the time in 2018 soon, given the popularity of that particular time window.